Kern

Eida (Searos' sister) - NOT the Cultist Leader!

At the end of the previous session, the party had just finished fighting a group of cultists led by two halfings, Mr. and Mrs. Hornwald. The room in which the battle took place now presented two possible options; a set of doors, along with the strange sigil that was carved at the back of the room by one of the cultists during the battle.

-Searos bangs the hilt of his short sword on the sigil and the wall behind it vanishes, revealing a path leading forward. However, before moving through the pathway hidden by the sigil, we decide first to examine what lie behind one of the doors. Moving through one of the doors the floor retains the same appearance of cooled magma, there is also the hissing of venting steam and scratching.

-As Geoffrei leads the way through this path it opens up into a large chamber, the path of cooled magma continues and ends at the other end of the room, splitting the chamber seemingly in two. On the left side of the path is a large pool of bubbling magma, to the right is a pit littered with the remains of cave lizards. Upon closer examination, some of the lizards were barely alive, their scales charred and cracked.

-We move back to the first room and shut the door behind us, moving towards the secret path. The heat fades and ground turns to rock, as this path begins to angle downwards and narrow slightly. There is a light up ahead and a series of groans echoes down the hall. Moving towards the light, the passage abruptly starts into a large chamber. On one side there is a pile of bodies, and an impression on the ground, where bones and bodies are fueled into a pyre in the center of the room. Opposite to the pile is a table scattered with papers. On the far side of this chamber there are 6 humanoid figures bound against the wall with chains, surrounding an alter with a body lying on it. A dark armored humanoid figure stands in front of the alter and next to the outline of a portal, behind a shimmering barrier. Carved in the surrounding walls are various runes and sigils. There is a another large purple demon standing near the pile of bodies.

-Examining the scene around the alter, it appears to be an empowerment ritual which would syphon the life of the 6 people on the wall and transfer their essence to the body on the alter. Tendrils of energy move out from the alter occasionally grazing one of the humanoids, stealing their essence. And to make things worse, Eida, Searos’ sister is among them!

-The black armored cultist welcomes the party, and invites us to stay and enjoy the festivities, when Geoffrei and him banter back and forth a little about Merrick sending us (as usual) as we slowly creep forward into the room. The purple demon turns towards us and snarls, displeased by our increasingly close proximity to the ritual. Moving closer, a slime encrusted demon appears beside Geoffrei, and the purple demon charges the group, firing off quills and clawing at Bantin.

-Nearing the pyre at the center of the room, tendrils lash out at Geoffrei and Salemar, dragging them towards the flames. Nearby two impish fire demons appear, fling themselves towards the Doctor and Scord and explode, covering them with a sticky residue. The imps essence is absorbed by the purple demon, restoring some of it’s energy. One of the prisoners on the far left of the ritual dies, as the black cultist spawns two more fire imps and slime demons.

-As another prisoner dies, the necessity to bring down the barrier and rescue the humanoids grow. Geoffrei slams into the barrier trying to knock it down but is repulsed and Salemar tries to pierce the shield with his blade, both efforts prove ineffective. Bantin sifts through the documents on the table, but finds he can only read one book, it’s about demons and forming pacts and the like. Searos moves next to the table and grabs 3 books at random for examination later. Salemar scratches some of the runes, which appears to weaken the barrier. The Doctor prays, some more runes vanish in a puff of smoke, he then sacred flames the barrier and it falls.

-The pyre begins moving towards the body on the alter after the barrier falls, the armored cultist now draws his weapon and grabs Salemar by the throat. Searos slips in behind and smashes the chains binding his sister, and also unlocks the shackles of a half-orc. The energy forming above the body on the alter becomes unstable, Scord controls the cultist, and makes him move into the mass of energy.

- After a bright flash of light as the energy explodes with the cultist standing in it. After the light fades, all that remains is his armor floating in the air, it begins to fall to the ground piece by piece and melts into a lump of steel. The portal doorway begins to shimmer, looking through we can see a series of lit torches and a large desk, standing on front of the portal on the other side are several other black figures resting on their swords.

Meet The Hornwalds

This session begins right as we finished slaying the last of the cultists, we now stand alone in the room with a massive flame hovering above the ground. Through the flame there stood a set of doors which one of the cultists had escaped through after giving warning of our arrival.

-Scord’s bow seems to be drawn towards the flame. Upon inspection the flame appears to bear some strange divine taint. While the origin is unknown, Scord believes it may be possible to draw out the corruption. Scord, aided by Salemar and The Doctor, introduces her bow to the flame. The flames make a clearing around the bow as it moves through, then begins spinning with increasing speed. The fire flickers orange as the flames rise to the ceiling, a bright white light is emitted blinding all of us momentarily. When the light fades, Scord is found passed out on the ground, the bow remains rotating in the now diminished flames. The flames eventually wink out leaving only a pile of ash. The bow bearing new runes and sigils bolstering it’s strength.

- The Doctor revives Scord, who did not seem to remember anything after placing the bow in the fire. Meanwhile the rest of the party had finished skimming over the cultist’ corpses for loot amassing a sizable stack of gold pieces, and two large ruby gems which were removed from the armor of the dragonborn cultists.

-We continue down the passage behind the dissipated fire, it begins with a steep rise but eventually levels off. At the end of the passage there is a thick red drape covering the exit of the tunnel. Geoffrei slices a hole in the drape unveiling a large carved out cavern. A wave of heat hits us as we step out into the cavern and notice that the floor is covered with cooled magma. Plumes of steam rise from a few fissures around the room, drifting above each fissure is a cluster of red balls of condensed flame. On the far side of the room there are two runic circles; one about 5 feet in diameter and the other 15 feet. The cavern has two sets of doors, one on each side.

-Standing above a fissure on either side of the circles is a halfling in a dark red robe, who Searos identified as Mr. and Mrs. Hornwald, a couple who strongly supported the seclusion of the halfling settlement with the surface.

-Geoffrei attempts to convince the two halflings that he is a fellow cultist, but they do not trust him. Surrounded by the red globes, the Hornwalds begin to glow red as the globules rotate around them. Two large cave lizards emerge from one of the doors on the left side of the cavern, the appeared multilated; their skin is cracked and burnt. Following behind the lizards is a cultist with a crossbow. Three seeping demons warp in from the circle of runes.

-At one point during the battle the lizard which The Doctor had captured breaks free from it’s leash and escapes down the tunnel we came from. The crossbow cultist makes his way to the back of the carvern where he spends some time carving a strange sigil on the wall knocking on the center. Steam burst from the fissures in the ground periodically which make the globules of flame move around frantically. Mr. and Mrs. Hornwald had much success in controlling the globules behavior to their advantage.

-Eventually the enemies are all dispatched. Scord takes a moment to examine the sigil inscribed at the rear of the cavern. She suspects that it is used to open an arcane lock, and is part of an arcane ward.

Leaping Lizzy

At the beginning of this session we were in the middle of a battle with some purple demons we encountered while exploring the underground tunnels near the cultist camp.

-After numerous wounds the large purple muscular demon collapses on the ground, soon after Geoffrei slays of the flying fire demons, and finally the seeping stench demon. We proceeded to examine the bodies, nothing of worth was recovered. Searos did not recognize the robed halfling that had fallen earlier in the battle.

-The smell of searing flesh rose from the chasm on the other side of the chamber, at the bottom was cooled magma smouldering. After examining the pillar that the giant purple demon was rolling before the battle, Bantin, Geoffrei and Salemar heave the pillar into the chasm making it easier to cross. We crossed over to the other side of the chasm, were there was a half-opened door.

-This door opened up into a passage way with lit torches alternating positions on the wall. Murmuring echoed down the passage ahead of us, but before reaching the source we came across a side passage with a shut door at the end.

-Taking the side passage the door opened up into a room with a few tables, many had alchemical implements on them. On one side of the room there was a collection of cages; a few of them had some cave lizards inside, snarling at our presence in the room. Another table had some books and scrolls and what appeared to be diaries. In the back of the room there were a collection of runes arranged in a circle, they appeared similar to the ones we witnessed from the Fire Hounds whose hide Geoffrei was currently wearing.

-Searos and The Doctor examine the caged lizards, while Bantin skims over the journals and diaries, Geoffrei picks up a random subset of the books, meanwhile Scord and Salemar examine the runes. The documents describe infusing creatures with elements. The circle of runes appear to have two layers; the first layer acts as a barrier while the inner circle starts a process which converts natural essences to the essences of the elemental plane of fire.

-Examining the tables with the alchemical supplies we discovered 3 containers storing colored liquids; Green, Blue, and Purple. The logs describe the liquids, saying that all but one had deadly effects if consumed. Over by the cages Searos ties a lasso as The Doctor tries to calm down the lizards in an attempt to tame one of them. However they grow aggressive, in a final attempt to capture one he opens the cage and the lizard bolts around the room, almost making it to the door before Geoffrei tackles it. Searos crafts a harness out of rope, and fastens it around the lizard. Before leaving The Doctor unleashes the rest of the lizards, they screech and bolt back through the door and head down the tunnel we had taken.

-We leave the room and continue down the path. The passage opens up into an alcove, a group of robed cultists kneel in front of stands with lit candels. The culists are facing towards the front of the room, and don’t seem to notice us approaching. At the front of the room is a figure in a red robe holding a sphere of fire above it’s head along with two dragonborn cultist standing in front of a massive flame. Soon the chanting stops as a cultist approaches the red figure and whispers to them. The red figure turns towards the crowd and speaks; “My bretheren, the sacrifices have brought themselves to us!”.

-At that moment the cultists turn towards us, unsheathing daggers hidden under their robes. Geoffrei bolts to the front of the room wrapping up the red robed figure and a dragonborn, Salemar rushes out to the open drawing fire. We focus on dispatching the groups of cultists, their lack of combat prowess allows us to manage despite the large unbalance in numbers. Eventually we slay the robed cultists, and work our way to the front of the room, where we slay the red robed cultist.

Happening Halflings

This session begins in the cultist mine, we has just finished dispatch a group of cultists at the bottom of the mine shaft, and were just about the continue further down the mine.

The path opened up into a large cavern, one large path continued through the center of the room where shouting and footsteps echoed down the tunnel at the end of the path. The right side of the path had be mined out, to the left of the path there is a 10 foot rising. On the platform, on the far side of the cavern 4 bow wielding figures stood behind a barricade. One of the figures was a knoll.

The bowman shout “We must hold them here!” as they fire off their arrows, Bantin and Geoffrei launch themselves onto the raised platform and engaged them. The knoll took out a long flail began whipping it around at Geoffrei and Bantin. Meanwhile Searos, Salemar and Scord assist with their ranged weaponry.

Whipping sounds can be heard from the tunnel and 4 cultist initiates burst from the far tunnel chanting “To the fire! To the fire! To the fire!” and surround Salemar and Searos. Following the initiates is a taskmaster flanked by 2 cultists bearing a sword and shield. The Doctor climbs onto the raised platform for safety as Scord blasts the initiates backwards, creating space for Salemar and Searos. Salemar rushes to the center of the group of cultists drawing their attention as Searos skirts the perimeter of the mob picking off the cultists. Up on the platform, Geoffrei and Bantin had just finished slaying the knoll and were mopping up the remaining archers.

The battle concluded shortly after, exhausted from the strain of combat Bantin crushes one of the spare energy crystals, oddly when he does so a faint scream was emitted from the fragments. We continue down the tunnel where we find two doors; one open and one closed. In one of the doors lies a dead halfling with a sword in his back. Searos recognizes the halfing as being someone from his village. A few jars are discovered and taken from a shelf in the room.

In the back corner of the room there is a curtain with a pulsing light and whirring coming from the other side. Behind the curtain we discover a pile of dead slave bodies, and a contraption with tubes and wiring hooked up to a table, strapped to the table is a halfing.

Salemar and Geoffrei smash the contraption to free the halfing, Searos explains that this halfing is named Perrin, one of his close friends growing up. After regaining consciousness Perrin suggests we lead the freed slaves through the tunnel he and a group of halfings took to get in here when they were leading an attack which failed.

Agreeing with this plan, we head back to the surface to gather the slaves. but before we do so we check behind the other door, this room appeared to be an emptied storage room, an oil lantern was discovered on the ground and taken by The Doctor. The slaves are waiting in the wooden building where we had left them when we arrive at the surface. We gather them together and lead them down the mine shaft. Perrin leads us down the tunnel towards the area where the secret tunnel is located. The tunnel in located at the bottom of a disposal site for the miners, we construct a pulley system to lower down the slaves, then squeeze through the tunnel.

Pushing Forward

This session begins at the cultist slave mine camp. We had just finished a tiring battle, and many of us were now in desperate need of rest. Around us are the three wooden buildings, one which contained slaves the cultists were leading to a shack which we assumed to be the mouth of a mine leading into one of the surrounding hills.

Searos and Geoffrei begin examining two of the wooden buildings, while the rest remained at the slave’s quarters to see to the surviving slaves. Geoffrei and Searos return with 7 crystals with a yellowish glow pulsing from within. We discovered that shattering the crystals would surround them in the yellow essence, restoring their energy. Distributing one crystal to each member, keeping one as a spare, those in need shattered their crystal and became invigorated by the essence. Gathered in the slave quarter’s examining the slaves, it appears that a very old gaunt looking halfling recognized Searos.

Searos discovered that it was an elder from where he was born and raised. The halfling explained the multiple-day long mining shifts taking place through shack at the other end of the camp. He explained the cultist’s continually fuelled and worshipped a pyre which lied somewhere inside the mine. Eager to put an end to the madness, and thanks to our new found energy we leave the slaves with a few weapons and tell them to remain out of danger while we proceed towards the shack.

Not to far into the tunnel, we came upon a mining shaft. There was a path that spiraled down the shaft, as well as a small pulley operated elevator which ran through the center. Operating the pulley brought up a platform with barrels of coal and mining tools. Unfortunately, the platform could only fit four people at once, also someone would have to stay behind to operate the lever, so we decided to take the pathway to descend down the shaft. On the way down, those in the front of the column stepped on a pressure plate, which released a series of poison darts. In addition to poisoning it’s victims the poison also seeped onto their clothes and glowed a bright neon green, which made them stand out in the darkness.

Another tunnel continued forward at the base of the shaft, at the end of the tunnel was a door. Next to the door, behind a few barrels, Geoffrei spots a hole large enough for the group to squeeze through. Searos slips ahead, where he signals to the rest of the group of a hostile presence at the end of the tunnel. Meeting up with the group, we devise a plan where Salemar would open the door and get the attention of the cultist’s. We would then burst from the tunnel flanking the enemies and suppressing the attacks directed at Salemar.

So we set ourselves up in the tunnel, listening in on Salemar who moved through the door. The cultist’s hesitated at first, Salemar claiming to be one of them, saying that there were enemies following close behind him. But the archer who escaped from the last battle saw through the farce and alarmed his allied of his ploy. But as they prepared their attacks we funnelled out of the tunnel and attacked. A large knoll stood near the tunnel with a long flail, on the other side of the room was a slavemaster with a whip ordering a group of slaves to strike at the invaders. The same cultist that escaped the previous battle rushed over to a door at the back of the chamber, opening it and shouting. Geoffrei hurried over and shut the door, blocking anyone from getting through.

The cultists were dispatched rather quickly their numbers much less than before, we did manage to avoid damaging the slaves, who without their master returned to mining. Geoffrei moved away from the door at one point, and the same cultist who escaped the previous battle slips through. The battle had now concluded, listening through the door at the back of the room some shouts and rustling could be heard, but there was no sign of reinforcements. Searos examined the slaves but found none he recognized, so with promises of sleep he finally manages to convince them to return to the surface and join up with the other used-to-be slaves.

Looting the bodies of the cultists does not turn up much, we leave everything except a whip the slavemaster was using, which was now possessed by The Doctor. The slaves dropped their tools and began towards the exit of the mine, while we prepared to continue forward.

Hey! I'm on your side!!

This session starts off where we last left off at the Cultist slave camp. Bantin, Scord and The Doctor pretending to be slaves, and Geoffrei a guard trying to catch them. They act out some convincing play fighting all while focusing their attacks on breaking down the door to the slave quarters. Searos, darted behind another of the wooden buildings where he turned to face the three dragonborn – one of the dragonborn being Salemar.

The acting continued a while longer, archers trained their bows towards the group by the door, but they could not get a clear shot without putting their supposed ally Geoffrei in danger. This lasted until one of the archers, who saw through the plot began shouting “They’re all working together you fools! Attack!”. The alarm resulted in loud rustling from the other two buildings, as cultists began pouring out of them.

A few more blows and the door to the slave quarters split open. Bantin hurried inside to find an elf and robed cultist. The robed cultist pulled out an orb and smashed it on the ground; from the shards a fiery winged demon burst into existence. Outside cultists quickly swarmed the front of the building, cutting off The Doctor from Geoffrei and Scord who were completely surrounded. Meanwhile Searos and Salemar dispatched one of the Dragonborn when they were also swarmed. The situation got worse, Searos escaped through teleporting onto the roof of the building, while Salemar went down in a blaze of glory. In the corner of his eye, he could see the cultist’s flaming weapons slash The Doctor to the ground, meanwhile a few cultists began to climb the roof.

Searos hurried to regroup with the rest of the group, Scord slipped out immediate danger into the slave quarters, where Bantin dueled a sabre wielding cultist. Looking through some gaps in the wood Scord spotted The Doctor and was able to bring him back into the fight. One cultist noticed his recovery and attempted to bring him down again, but Searos appeared behind him and cut him down, panting heavily Searos told The Doctor of Salemar condition, then quickly ran to aid Geoffrei. Geoffrei stood near the smashed door, swinging his halbred at the cultists and fire demon surrounding him.

Now conscious, The Doctor began moving along the perimeter of the battle, attempting to reach where Salemar had fallen. He finally found Salemar lying on the ground, but standing over him was another cultist. Without (barely any) means to dispatch the cultist, he managed to out manuver the cultist, bandaging Salemar quickly as he ran.

The number of cultists around Geoffrei and Searos began to thin, the fire demon still buffeting them with scalding flames. Bantin sliced the cultist in the building apart, but only shortly after the robed caster consumed most of his memories, and collapsed on the wood floor. Scord attacked the robed cultist, and in doing so his flesh burst open, another grotesque demon burst from underneath the skin and charged Scord – who had also just stabilized Bantin. Searos tossed a few shuriken from outside the building, blinding the demon, Scord and Bantin moved away from it silently as it slashed violently with it’s claws.

Eventually the last of the cultists had been slain, the fire demon surveyed the battlefield, pleased with the chaos that had taken place, it flew away. The battle had left the group with many casualties, which The Doctor now tied off with bandages to stop the bleeding, but he admits sadly that it would be difficult for some to continue, given their condition.

The Rescue

This session beings at the end of a battle with a group of bandits led by Jonn The Con right outside the entrance to the Tarnwood Ruins. The sounds of bandits dashing through the bushes moving south could still be heard as the surrounding lizardfolk who appeared in the distance dispatched the surrounding bandits, then melded back into the shadowy brush. Now, the only remaining bandit was the halfling Cass, who knelt in front of Salemar’s blade.

“We let you escape once, we won’t make that mistake again” Salemar cocked his arm back ready to thrust the blade into his throat. Cass replied with his usual psychotic banter but was cut off abruptly as the steel passed through his through and his sentence trailed off with a gargle. Blood spilled out, but did not act as expected. Instead of spilling out onto the ground it gathered in a sphere suspended in a above the body. Looking around we now notice that Jonn, and the other bandit’s too – all had a sphere which hovered above their remains, evaporating into the breeze shortly after forming.

Scord and The Doctor began their separate investigations, and concluded that the spheres did indeed have magic properties, but also a religious component – a demonic influence. The bodies that remained did not bear much treasure, besides Jon’s two axes: Pain and Pleasure. After looting the bodies the dark scaled dragon turned his attention to our group and approached. Eyes filled with hatred he overlooked the group, his gaze fell upon everyone except Salemar, who the dragon failed to acknowledge.

Instead, it addressed The Doctor, explaining that his actions today were not of his own but orders from the Oligars (sp?) – ancient dragons which understood the importance that we not fall today. Above a much larger dragon can be seen moving above the clouds, it does a small circle above the clearing where we stand and continues flying to the south. The black dragon begins to speak of the significance of the draconian stones, and how we need to complete the prophecies and unite the lesser races. Before departing after his larger master, he tells us that the battle as already begun to the north.

Alone now in the clearing we move the nearby bodies into the pit, a gift for the necromancer Agera. Then we continue towards the large Bandit camp the hobgoblins spoke of earlier, on the way we set up camp for the night. A few tremors could be felt from the ground, originating from Tharg-Calan and the direction the dragon’s departed. Continuing through the forest towards the camp in the morning, we come across a small clearing. A body with an axe stuck in it lie dead in the clearing. Searos is sent to investigate where he recovers a net with enchanted bells used to alert the caster.

Worried that the trap was set by the bandit’s, and that they now knew of our location, we spend some extra time circling around to the rear of the camp before getting any closer. Upon reaching the camp, we take hiding positions as Geoffrei walks into the camp, speaking the goblin password that the hobgoblins had also provided. But he received no response; the camp was vacant. In the large commander’s tent a body is discovered and pulled out from under a bed. Clutched in his hand was a scroll with strange markings. Scord determined the markings were directions to a location near the camp. So we head back out the front of the camp in the direction of the markings

Just as we leave the fortified walls of the bandit camp, there was some rustling coming from the bushes on either side of the path. Searos whips a shurken through one bush, after hearing a yelp of pain, a knoll bursts from the bushes and charges Searos. After incapacitating the knoll, we parley with a dragonborn who was hiding behind a tree waiting to charge. We convince his that was an error in attacking the knoll, and we learn that they are in search of bodies to fuel some ritualistic fire in honor of Scarm, noticing the emblem of flames they all bared on their armor.

We go along for a while, pretending that we will lead them to a pile of bodies to fuel the fire. While moving along the path, we give the signal and strike at them, catching one of the dragonborn and half-elves by surprise. The cultist’s group collapses in on us, the scouts that were in the woods to the side of the path charged in, their weapons glowing with fiery energy. The half-elves began chanting, which further increased the flames on their weapons. Two robed figures appear out from behind some trees and smash an orb on the ground. Erupting from the shards are two demonic creatures bathed in flames. Weakening the robed casters causes them to shed their mortal skin, unveiling another grotesque demon.

After defeating the cultists, we continue to follow the scrolls directions. The directions lead us to three large hills positioned in a triangle. There are some footprints leading down the valleys between the hills. A few buildings build of wood could be seen in the center of the triangle. Searos scouts ahead and returns with reports of more cultists, all bearing the same insignia, leading groups of mistreated slaves down a mine shaft leading into one the of hills.

Searos returns to hiding as Salemar (with the insignia scrawled on his armor) approaches two of the dragonborn cultists, holding The Doctor and Scord in his arms. Geoffrei following behind holding Bantin, we once again feign being part of their group; claiming to have brought more slaves. The story is believed by the dragonborn, but one of the half-elf archers begins to grow suspicious. Hoping to draw attention away from the group, Searos comes out of hiding and launches a shurken at the suspicious archer.

Salemar and the two dragonborn draw their weapons and chase Searos as he runs away. Meanwhile Scord, Bantin, and The Doctor run for the wooden building which houses the slaves, Geoffrei following behind pretending to try to catch them. Reaching the door of the building, it appears to be locked. Geoffrei catches up and pretends to strike at one of the pretend slaves; missing on purpose and striking the door. Moving out of the way, Bantin pretends to strike at Geoffrei using his spiked chains wrapped around his wrists to look like chains. Geoffrei ducks and the blow hits the door. Scord now lying on the ground after evading the attacks, kicks at the door as one of the archers, finally able to get a clear shot, shoots an arrow that lands inbetween her legs.

The door to the slaves quarters almost broken through, the sounds of more guards on the other side of the door can be heard. Meanwhile Searos and Salemar prepare to slay the two dragonborn who were lured away.

Jonn The Con

This session begins as we finally exited the Tarnwood Ruins back out at the bandit camp where we had first entered it. Stepping outside the tunnels, we found ourselves surrounded by archers. A muscular human by the name of Jonn, wielding two axes flanked by two hobgolins, approached the group and threatened Searos.

After the threat, Jonn and the two hobgoblins charged the group with deadly purpose, Jonn unleashing savage triple slash attacks. In between the flurrys, shouting from the archer’s captains could be heard as they focused on targets straying from the center of the party. The captain’s themselves contributed a painful volley onto the middle of the party.

Looking around and noticing a few barrels situated near the archers contained flammable material, Scord launches a fiery arrow which stuck in one of the barrels side, setting it aflame. She also took advantage of Jonn’s exceptional melee prowess through overwhelming him mentally – forcing his axes towards one of the kobolds. Geoffrei creates a cloud of grit and blood which shrouded the group from some of the arrow attacks. Meanwhile The Doctor focused a protective barrier of radiant light, in preparation of what appeared to be a terrible battle of attrition.

Searos fell early, being the primary focus of Jonn’s fury. He weaved nimbly through the group with ease pursuing his prey. Searos teleported seemingly out of harms way, when to his surprise two axes plunged into his chest. Searos was resuscitated only to fall once again shortly after. Bantin, too, collapsed – blood oozing from many puncture wounds.

They both recovered enough to get to their feet, where Bantin scurried back down the tunnel into the Tarnwood Ruins for quick shelter, Searos remained concealed behind the barrier of grit. Things were looking quite grim; a few of the surrounding bandit’s drew weapons and surrounded the group, barring any chance of escape.

Just before all hope was lost, some rustling was noticed, as some of the archers began to vanish. Soon after, dagger wielding lizardfolk emerged from the bushes to engage the bandit captains. Large wings flapped above as a black dragon swooped down only a few feet above us and began snapping at more of the archers – who were now mostly trying to flee.

Jonn ordered his bandits to stay as he made his escape. But we pursued him and took him down, as the life fled from his body he mumbled some cryptic words about his return, and we noticed he wore the same insignia as the army of goblin’s we fought before the pillars of light appeared.

The battle was now coming to a conclusion as a majority of the bandits vanished back into the forest. Now, our fate rests in the claws of a dragon.

Going In Circles

This session begins after we were ambushed by a group of elementals while exploring the tunnels beneath the Tarnwood Ruins. The ambush happened a large opening in the tunnels, one with a river cutting across, which we were making our way across to reach the elemental who kept their distance on the other side.

Everyone except Scord had made it to the other side of the river, Scord stood on the other side of the river, battling one of the gargoyles. The gargoyle bats at Scord furiously, leaving her unconscious on the cavern floor, seemingly alone. But from the other side the river The Doctor focuses his healing energy to stabilize her, as Bantin dashed across the river surface to her aid; crushing the gargoyle to dust. Now reunited we were able to make quick work on the remaining elementals.

After a quick rest, we decide to turn around a cross the river once again in order to proceed down the one unchecked path (left) in this room. This winds around for a while until is opens up into a large room with more blue fungus mushrooms illuminating part of the cavern, the other side has another passage going to the left. Heading down this path it curves to the left, as the air in the cavern begins to get warmer.

The path presents yet another branch; one path leading upward, and the option to continue straight. We decide to continue straight down the same path, when we begin to hear running water. Moving towards a greening light at the end of the tunnel leads to another large chamber, with seeming the same river as before. There is lots of vegetation in this room, and at the bottom of the cliff there are Kruthik holes. Several stalactites were placed across the river forming a dam which we used to cross to the other side of the chamber, where another path continued.

Moving down this tunnel the air begins to cool once again and it curves upwards, After 30 minutes or so it comes to another fork; we choose to go right. This path turns sharply, and before too long there is a large open pit, about a 30 foot gap, and at the bottom there are skeletons & sharp stalactites. Looking across, the tunnel appears to continue on the other side of the gap, but it ends abruptly with a wall of rock possibly from a cave in.

Bantin climbs down into the pit, examining the skeletons he determines two races of skeletons lie here; human and elvan. A metal spike used for scaling the rock walls was found lodged in the other side of the pit, but after being unable to remove it, Bantin returns to the rest of the group. We head back to the fork and head left this time. It goes straight and we start to smell a pungent odor, eventually the ground ends at the entrance to another chamber, which presents two other paths; right slopes up, left slopes down, a blue glow can be seen from the path sloping downward. We go down.

This path leads to the room with the pillar in the center, and where we fought the Kruthiks. We return and go down the other path that leads up, along the way there are more Kruthik tunnels but no sounds. Moving along the tunnel there is a crushed skeleton, as we pass the eyes begin to glow, it’s one of Agera’s minions. Taking the head with us as we move down the path further, it ends suddenly as the tunnel has collapsed. As we remove the rubble, we can head scraping sounds from the other side. A large ghast with a shovel shifts the stones from the other side. We watch as it continues to clear the path, then moves aside allowing us to continue.

This path leads to the room with the fallen column, skeletons and ghasts digging around the area. Soon the necromancer Agera appears from the doors to his chambers, shouting some nonsense about 5 jars in his possession that began glowing. Scord is sent to check out the jars, each jar carried a golen glow and contained a different material; sand, pearl, gold, bronze, and iron. Each jar has a sigil of a hammer on the bottom. Scord takes two jars; gold and iron, and returns to the group after signing a contract with the necromancer.

We depart for the chamber with the dwarven statues. Placing each jar in it’s appropriate statue, both statues begin to glow and the door shudders. Geoffrei pushed the door open, and a divine aura washes over us. Inside is a circular room with an old fountain in the center. There are 3 impressions in the fountain, each resembling to a piece of the relics recovered from these ruins. After placing the two pieces we possess into the fountain it begins to pour holy water, and a bright light erases the surrounding walls and replaces it with shifting images.

This images portray titans battling dragons, armies of lesser races fighting elementals. Towering pillars of fire and images of gods fighting the titans. 6 figures, stand around a swirling disk, as the images shift back to the battle, the disk appears, as the titans get close, shackles burst out from the disk and bind the primordials. The third impression on the fountain begins to glow red, The Doctor begins to focus and pray as the red light moves around her head. The walls illuminate another series of images, a sphere pierced with spears shatters, and flashing images o centered around different locations of circles of runic pillars; snow lake, swamp, keep, field, woods and sand.

The Doctor falls to his knees as the water in the fountain stops flowing. Exiting the circular room and removing the jars from the statues cause them to stop glowing, and the door to shut. We aim to return to the surface, backtracking our was back through the necromancer’s room, through the area with the furnaces, back through across the room with the gap and the room with the dwarven map. Back through the collapsed wall and up through the tunnel. Reaching the surface the camp looked much different, the tents and bedrolls were missing, and whatever parts were salvageable was now missing. The surroundings were much too quiet and caused much discomfort, as a burly figure holding two axes approaches us. He grins menacingly towards Searos as he says; “Ah Searos! I think it’s about time I had your hide!”, looking around we now notice 20 archers stand positioned around us.